This game will use The Force Awakens: The Beginner Game, a boxed set by Fantasy Flight Games based on their Edge of the Empire, Age of Rebellion and Force & Destiny RPGs, but set in the time of the new Disney trilogy.

The Beginner Game is packaged with pregenerated characters, who are Jakku scavengers, but for the DreamLyrics version I want to fold us into the events of the films straight away. Love them or hate them (probably a bit of both for me), the new Star Wars films do give us more choice in character creation.

There has been an awakening in the Force. Anyone can potentially be a Force-user in this new era, so characters created in Force & Destiny aren't so constrained by the setting. That said, you could equally create a character from Edge of the Empire or Age of Rebellion, but note that this isn't a scum and villainy game; this isn't The Mandalorian.

I will post more information on these games for those who are interest. But you don't need to own them, you don't need to learn the system.

For character creation you'll provide me a short write-up of your character and I will build it for you. I've been playing an ftf campaign using FFG's Star Wars RPGs for about 2 years now and have a firm grasp of the rules--- Alas, it reminds me of D&D 3rd Ed, in that it's one of those systems where you can mechanically gimp your character at creation stage. (D&D 5th Ed seems much improved in that regard.)

So character creation will be more of a personal service.

As we play, I will handle the system on the back-end, making all the rolls and posting an action log in the footnotes. I will interpret your post into mechanical actions, and where it's not clear to me or I need an additional input, I will ask you.

Like when we playtested Dungeon World here, I will post a commentary on the system to help anyone trying to learn it. Of course, those who do will be able to have a more active input into their character's mechanical actions.

Let's get started then....

Were you absolutely clueless reading that teaser story? What is this 'Star Wars'?

What's the bare minimum Star Wars lore you'll need to play in this game?

Fortunately not much. If I parred it down to the absolute essentials, you could probably get away with only watching Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi, in that order.

That might not be anyone's list of Star Wars highlights, but it does contain all the story essential to this game (as far as I can tell).

So you've watched the films, read the teaser and want to play but how do you create a character?

CHARACTER CONCEPT

Put some thought into the character you want to play. All we know for sure is that your character is a volunteer in the Resistance.

The Resistance and the First Order

The Galactic Empire formed in a similar way to the Nazis and the Third Reich, out of the body of a corrupt and ineffectual democracy. Whereas the First Order is more like ISIS, having formed and spread out of sight of the First World.

The First Order was formed in the Unknown Regions by extremist Imperial officers who though the Empire was too accommodating, too weighed down by galactic politics and its own bureaucracy. They want a leaner, more draconian organisation that will reshape the Galaxy in an image it prefers. The First Order is the ultimate expression of the Empire's Death Stars and so it's not surprising that Plan A was to build Starkiller Base, the mega-Death Star destroyed in The Force Awakens, but not before it destroyed the New Republic.

Whereas the Empire recruited its Stormtroopers from a Galaxy-wide draft, perhaps explaining the variable quality of their troops, the First Order trains its Stormtroopers from childhood. It captures these child soldiers from their homes in raids across the Outer Rim Territories. Entire settlements are pillaged and left childless. The First Order is no less evil than the Empire, but it is a less insidious, more brutal evil.

The Resistance was formed by Princess Leia to combat the threat of the First order, funded by the New Republic's black budget and officially unaffiliated. The problem was, as long as the First Order stayed in the Outer Rim, intel on its activities was very patchy, there was little media interest and so the New Republic wasn't hugely concerned.

So why did your character join the Resistance?

An awakening in the Force

We also know that Force-users are suddenly becoming more aware of their powers in this era. The Jedi are all but extinct---only Rey carries that torch now---But the Force doesn't really care about religions or orders.

"It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together." --Old Ben Kenobi

An important component in building your character is deciding how dedicated they are to the Force, conceptually.

They may not be dedicated at all. You might decide you want to play a grizzled Resistance commando with no Force powers. You might decide you want to play an idealistic doctor from the colonies who has joined the Resistance as a raw recruit.

Your character might be Force-sensitive. A hotshot Resistance ace who can seemingly get in the minds of his opponents. A spy who can sense a lie or a double-cross.

Your character might be a Force-user. A Resistance fighter who has been trained with Force powers and lightsabre by Leia, Maz and Professor Huyang. Maybe they've been trained by someone else entirely, a non-Jedi/Sith Force-using group like the Steel Hand Adepts. Maybe they found K'Kruhk sat on a mountaintop somewhere.

Not bad for a human

Star Wars is science-fiction. You don't have to be human. There are many alien species in the Galaxy that you can play. Some are simply Star Trek-like humans with head cosmetics (Star Wars prefers tentacles than ridges) and skinpaint. Others are very alien indeed.

An Ithorian

And of course, there are droids. You already have one droid accompanying you on your mission, 2BB-2 so your team doesn't need a droid PC. But if you want to play a droid, there's nothing to stop you and they come in all forms.

A MagnaGuard

Will your character be human or something else?

What to do next?

Write up a short character concept, you shouldn't need more than about 200 words at this stage. The idea is to get us started on a greater creative process. Post it here, don't be shy.

OK, thinking of playing something entirely different, maybe a droid? Or maybe that race (insectoid) that I played in your last one-off Neil, can't remember the name?

Verpine are an interesting race, for sure. Alien yet relatable because the insectoid/hive trope is still based in real world concepts. I think they were inspired by the Prawns in District 9, who I thought were very sympathetic.

Other androgynous insectoid aliens with very different cultures:

Elom
Gand
Harch

Are you thinking of something that's specifically insectoid, or just not specifically male or female? If you're just floating ideas, also cool, please feel free to float 'em.

I am thinking of a holy man that believes in the tenets of the force and has trained all his life to no avail. Then suddenly with the Awakening, all of his training, his life of meditation and contemplation of the force, meant something. I see him as being spry for an old man, but mostly out of touch with modern society as he has lived a lonely remote existence for decades.

Interesting or not?

So, I was going to borrow a character from a game Jim had and adapt it.

Stev Beren. Although I have a female version who is vying for attention. Consider him to have been a force sensitive that was on the first order side previously. A spy and assassin who ended up ‘becoming the mask, growing a conscience and switching sides. Sort of a force sensitive dark Han Solo in a way.

Here's a pitch

I was thinking of a Dathomiri.

After the battles of Dathomir in BBY20 and BBY19 many night sisters went into exile, and any that had been away stayed away.

Given that Darth Sidious had personally intervened at Dathomir, most felt that it was too risky to return whilst he was still alive. There was only a general return of Dathomiri after the Empire and the Emperor was gone, around about ABY5.

Ketta had been born about then - as had a great many others, whose mothers had similarly put off childbirth until there was somewhere safe to bring up children.

With so many others her age competing for the limited resources of a planet recovering from devastation, once Ketta had reached maturity, she had opted for that well-worn off-world profession of bounty hunter.

She'd been a bounty hunter for a while, but realised she really didn't want the First Order to take things back to the way they were in the days of the Empire, devastating or indeed destroying planets - in particular Dathomir.

Force sensitive by birth. :-)

Excellent, this is all looking interesting guys!

Everyone, let's focus more on your character concept's recent history. Why did they join the Resistance? The struggle between the First Order and the Resistance takes place in quite a remote area, compared to the Empire vs Rebel Alliance, which was Galaxy-wide. So your characters probably could have sat it out.

What drew your characters into the conflict? Did they live in the Outer Rim Territories and were literally caught up in it? Maybe they were living in the Republic, but saw recruitment posters and wanted to fight tyranny like their parents did? Maybe they were military in some system defence fleet in the Inner Rim and wanted to see some action. If they are human, they might have been Fight Order and defected, though bear in mind the First Order aren't a giant administration like the Empire. They're a hard core of zealots and extremists.

Never tell me the odds!

How powerful are starting characters in FFG's Star Wars?

Starting characters are very tough. They're hard to kill and must go through extensive levels of ever-increasing wounding before they get there. Think Luke vs Vader, Empire Strikes Back. It's not pretty but they should survive.

In terms of skill, they're competent and perfectly capable of holding their own against Stormtroopers, flying starships, etc. Again, think farmboy Luke in A New Hope. They aren't heroes yet but they know what they're doing.

They start with a career, an umbrella role containing lots of specialisations.

What starting characters don't have, is much Force ability. If your character is Force sensitive, they sacrifice some of their character creation points, which would have gone into their career, for a soupçon of Force ability.

A character can gain a more joined-up approach to the Force by playing a Force user. The training with Leia and Maz gives you an open option for this. However, you still have to spend character creation points on gaining Force powers so there's no way around that trade-off.

There's no one optimal path, but simply be aware that you have to spend points on Force powers that you could spend elsewhere. Thus Force users aren't automatically more powerful than non-Force users at start.

A long time ago

To give you an idea of time scales, I've put together a very abridged timeline.

• 7955 Start of the Clone Wars (Attack of the Clones)
• 7958 Order 66, Great Jedi Purge, End of the Clone Wars, founding of the Galactic Empire (Revenge of the Sith)
• 7977 Luke Skywalker meets Old Ben Kenobi, Battle of Yavin, first Death Star destroyed (A New Hope)
• 7981 Battle of Endor, Ewoks, second Death Star destroyed, Emperor killed (Return of the Jedi)
• 7982 Battle of Jakku. Empire defeated, founding of the New Republic (Battlefront II)
• 8011 Hosnian Prime destroyed by First Order. Resistance destroys Starkiller Base, flees counter-attack (The Force Awakens)
• 8012 Present day (The Rise of Skywalker)

This uses the in-fiction dates. Fans tend to use BBY (Before Battle of Yavin) and ABY (After Battle of Yavin), with 7977 being 0 ABY.

So the events of the first Star Wars film were 35 years ago.

Being starting characters, there's a good chance your characters weren't born then. But they may be late-starters.

Guys PMing me, I will get around to replying today, but I've run out of time this morning alas.

OK, I'm back. Did a 10-mile cross-country and now sitting on the patio with a cold shandy.

Where did we get to? Ah yes. Why did your character join the Resistance?

I see this as the crux of your character's story. In some ways, that deep backstory you create when creating a character is like an actor creating backstory. It's used to facilitate the acting/role-playing and that's why it's important to us. To other players' characters though, they only see your character come alive in the interactions with their characters, NPCs, and the plot itself (which some would say is also a character).

We aren't using any group creation system here. Something like Hillfolk is great at what it does, but I want you to be free not to know each other very well and it's tricky to pull that off with Hillfolk.

Instead we're having this group brainstorming session and I'm looking out for hooks that might tie characters together, but am not bothered if they don't. The characters will get to know each other in the game.

But they are all freedom fighters in the Resistance. There are only volunteers in the Resistance and until the First Order turned the Hosnian System into a nova, the New Republic was publically not involved in the fight.

Your characters must really want to fight the First Order. Work with that.

Once we have these strong motivations sorted, I think the rest of your character will start to fall into place, and we'll also have a better idea of who knows who amongst you.

Btw, if open brainstorming isn't your cup of blue milk, that's no problem. Send me a PM and we can go from there.

Pandemonium. Yes. I think that's a nice base for a character concept and there are a few ways I would go with building that character. For example, you could opt for a Force Adept, which is someone who has faith in the Force but isn't a Force user, like the Guardians of Whills in Rogue One. But what we're crucially missing is their motivation for joining the Resistance.

Angr. That's all doable, though we might be able to find a background more involved in the present than Dathomir. What is it about Dathomir that you like specifically? Also, bounty hunters are a cutthroat lot and their business didn't suffer under the Empire, who let the Outer Rim Territories look after themselves.

So I think we need to find a much stronger motivation for this lass to join the Resistance. As it stands, she might not like the look of the First Order but the Galaxy is a big place and they're even easier to avoid than the Empire. The phantom Emperor's declaration of war on the Galaxy would certainly rouse the Bounty Hunters Guild but that event is too recent (past few days) for it to have been the motivation for your character to join. (The Resistance have been in hiding for the past year.)

I put my next one in pm

I like the Guardian idea. Let's use that. When was the Temple of Kyber destroyed? I see him as old, but I don't want him dottering either. I am not married to race, so we could bend things that way too. If he was at the Temple when it was destroyed, and later when he was playing hermit, the First Order came along and culled where he was residing, I could see him as being over the top interested in joining the resistance.

nemarsde



I was thinking that Dathomir would be a good rational to be a potential force user - but I am not especially wedded to that concept, if there were a reason for her to be a potential force user from anywhere else.

So - new concept

I think I will stick with human as I am not up to speed with the other races enough to do them justice.


I response to our challenge of why the character is in the resistance, what about her being Greer Sonnel's daughter?

Angr. I think you're onto something there, defo. The great thing about this new era is that you don't have to explain why your character has Force ability. It's not about who your parents were anymore. There has been an awakening in the Force, and I think the implication at the end of The Last Jedi, with the stable boy using the Force on his broom, was that it's wide open for new stories.

Greer's probably too young to have an adult child, but I know someone who does have a daughter who would be the perfect age! Have you watched The Mandalorian, episode 4? Omera was a lovely character, though I think Julia Jones the actress is great in everything. Her daughter, Winta, was I think meant to be about 5-6, which would make her about 28-30 in our game but there were younger kids in the village. Having met a Mandalorian and Baby Yoda would look pretty good on your Star Wars resume. Her motivation to join the Resistance would be pretty clear if she heard the First Order were raiding villages and taking people's children. It's almost exactly what the Klatooinians did when she was a kid.

Career-wise she could have any focus you wanted really. Sure, she might have been a villager much of her life, just like Luke was a farmboy but that's not a restriction.

Pandemonium. Jedha City was destroyed about 35 years ago, though your character might have only been a novice, living in the street with the other Guardians who had been kicked out of the Temple of the Kyber by the Imperials. So he might have only been in his twenties at the time, making him 55+ in our game. Since then he might have become a wanderer preacher of the Church of the Force.

Gypsy. Were you thinking Mechanically-inclined for your Verpine, btw? Makes a lot of sense, they are very good at it.

Right, I'm starting to toy with character builds for you and am reminded of a decisive question that you all need to answer.

Does your character wield a lightsabre?

If they do, they must effectively be a Force user (unless they want to risk chopping their own head off), so must be created using the careers from Force & Destiny. This is neither a good or bad thing, it just immediately shortlists a bunch of options.

Next, working with another player, I gave them some further guidance on the First Order, the bad guys, which they said they found helpful. I'm reposting it here.

Remember that the First Order are not corrupt, Machiavellian villains like the Imperials. The First Order have been radicalised since childhood and they are cra-crazy.

General Hux's speech from The Force Awakens shows the difference between them and the Empire. Both are capable of the same evil. The Empire blamed the destruction of Aldaraan on the Rebel Alliance. The First Order wanted the Galaxy to know they destroyed the Hosnian System.



There's not really any wiggle room if you're in the First Order. They have designated executioners for carrying out formal beheadings of deviants, so not only must it be a common occurrence they also like to make a show of it.

Sira Beren.

If SIra Beren could be described as anything its intense, and dark. Moody. Force sensitive but with a skillset more suited to a secret agent. Human, perhaps in the range of 19 or twenty. Acknowledged as generally razor sharp but oddly focused, with skills and skill gaps.

Nope, I was thinking medic.

Motivation, her/his hive family were wiped out.

Combat ready, but her/his prime motive is to preserve the life of anyone part of the new mindset hive.

Hmm, depending on timing there could be a character intersection...

I think for my Guardian/preacher didn't use a lightsaber before, but I think as soon as he was awakened, he would have begun training because it is the symbol of all that he believes in.

I am okay with using Winta my character - instant back story

And being with the Child is a good reason to have had the force awaken. So - yes, she will be a Force user.

Angr. Excellent. You still need to inject your creative juices into her backstory from year 6 onward, so you can't rest on your laurels yet.

Gypsy, if you're a Resistance medic then there's a good chance you'd have treated/operated on Art's character, who was retrieved from the site of the Battle of Ansett Island on Batuu. Someone had inconsiderately put a force pike through her face.

I'm going to start some builds and slotting characters into mechanical niches that fit their concepts.

I'm getting there.
I'll send you a DM (my) tomorrow morning

I am probably pointing her towards the Consular Niman disciple role

Don't worry about the mechanical side; I'll take care of that. It's more important that you're happy you know who your character is and what they do 'in the fiction', so to speak.

Neil and I have been talking about my character who can shift in a couple of directions, depending on what we need after the others figure out their toons

Well, so far I am seeing a ‘special forces/infiltrator sort(basically the imperial agent skill set from SWTOR, a medic, Niman disciple lightsabers force user, another lightsabery force user.

So if yo go really basic, we have two Fighter/mages, a ranger, a cleric ...

Or something like that.

And it seems we have a tie in Art! Cool!

BTW, liked the pic you posted. Cat is cool, nice to see Finn at last. You too of course

https://imgur.com/a/q4mYBE7

There is Liam

Amos Whitman
36 year old member of the resistance.
Former sheriff of the outer colony Klandathu - A rough and tumble out colony world that suffered from raids from the First Order in which Amos and his wife were shot and left for dead and their son David was taken. Amos survived his injuries, Letha did not.

Very competent with weapons, rugged survival, both speeder and animal operations, etc.

Klendathu ... starship troopers?

Hehe, just a tribute to a campy movie

Seems like the group will have a good mix.

Question will be if he’s as much of a jaded cynic or if the young lady can give the ‘old man’(by comparison) a run for his money.

]Pande looks like that character might be the true oldest one.

.

Nice to meet Liam too!

OK, come get 'em.

Amos
Gypsy's character
Jelly Bean
Pandemonium's character
Sirra
Winta

Ok. So in interpreting the skills the yellows blues and greens mean essentially...?

Just for clarity.

Pande and Kenseg are the ‘eldest’ I would guess.

The sheets are hardly self-explanatory, but I will post some YouTube videos on the system tomorrow for anyone who's interested.

Things to note are, your skills, Strain Threshold, Wound Threshold, Soak and Encumbrance all run directly off of your characteristics. There are no checks against characteristics, so you can basically ignore them.

Nearly all checks are against skills, so have a look at those.

Gah, what do the symbols mean!?

Symbols quick reference

Basically, the coloured shape symbols equal dice. There are positive dice: Yellow, green and blue. And negative dice: Red, purple and black.

Two positive dice of any colour is about average. Three is good. Four is excellent.

One yellow dice means you have the potential to roll Triumph on the rare occasion. Triumph equals a tide-changing narrative boon.

Two yellow dice means you can reasonably expect to roll a Triumph in a three round combat, frex.

Green dice are better than blue dice.

Yellow dice usually derive from your ranks in a skill. Green dice from your characteristics. Blue dice usually come from Talents, equipment and circumstantial effects.

If you have a black dice with a red subtraction symbol in it, that negates one black dice.

In any check, you are always rolling against some purple dice, more for higher difficulty. Black dice are from poor equipment, lack of training, and circumstantial effects.

So, skills with a yellow dice you have a rank in. What if you have three green dice in a skill? You have no ranks in it but can still use the skill. However, look to the left of the dice. See that green tick? That indicates a career skill.

If a skill has neither a yellow dice or a green tick, you lack training in it, so expect to confront a black dice on your checks using that skill.

That's plenty to digest for now. If you don't know what a weapon is, Google it, you should find pictures.

If you see a small stop symbol next to a weapon or item, that means its restricted. It can't be bought on the street full stop. That doesn't matter to you, you already have it.

Afaik, I don't have a name for Gypsy or Pande's characters, so I've called them Bugsy and Preach respectively until they do.

As an end note, I have been very very generous with equipment, yes, but this is inline with the Beginner Games. FFG don't want new customers' first experience being playing a hobo!

To acknowledge the sheer length of time it takes to create characters here, I have also awarded them 30 XP. Generally the amount you should get for completing an adventure. I decided this was in tune with some of the more developed backstories.

Feel free to ask questions.

What is the pair of wings with a dot in it?

Looks like we have a decent balance of abilities.

Awesome Neil! Love it. Preach is his official name, that sticks. Whatever name he had before doesn't matter, doesn't exist. He has given his life to being a guardian. Love the pic too. Perfect!

Yes, good pic for me too - thanks

Art. OK, you're probably referring to Sirra's Gunnery and Ranged-Heavy skill, which have some dice and then an Advantage symbol (laurels symbol) next to them.

That means an automatic Advantage is added to her attack result. On an attack result, Successes (the blast symbol) do the damage, and the Advantages trigger special effects, such as crits. Next to your weapon, you'll notice it has a number of Advantages shown for its Critical rating, that's how many you need to roll to trigger a crit. Thus, your automatic Advantages help you crit.

These automatic Advantages come from her cybernetic eye.

Angr. I've made a change to Winta's sheet this morning. I noticed that the Sense Emotion Talent was used for improving your Charm, Coersion and Deception rolls, which aren't her career skills anyway. I'd assumed the Talent penalised an enemy check. Instead I've reallocated the points to improve her lightsaber skill and unlock another basic Force power, Influence. This is closer to her concept imo.

Everyone, this is important to note because it catches us out sometimes at our gaming table:

Ranged--Light = One handed blasters
Ranged--Heavy = Two handed blasters

Why they didn't call the skills 'Ranged--One-Handed' and 'Ranged--Two-Handed', I do not know. Or 'Ranged--Pistol' and 'Ranged--Rifle' I'll never know. It'd save a lot of confusion.

So if your character picked up a heavy blaster pistol, what skill would they use?

(Don't worry, you won't have to make checks or interpret rolls, but you would be deciding if your character uses a blaster that they scavenged.)

Well. Far as Sirra is concerned, Preach is likely to be ‘grandpa’. Might even tweak the age down another year or so and put her at Luke’s age in new hope.

If Sirra had a ‘Callsign’ it would probably be ‘Revenant’.

Yes, I haven't filled out age or height. Feels oddly specific for Star Wars.

What we do have, on page 2 of your character sheets is a big box for back story. The contents will print on the sheet, so I'd like you all to do a condensed version of your backgrounds.

I've used Amos as an example, with 500 words of lorem ipsum:

http://www.leanerminds.com/forums/files/cfh_pc_colonist.pdf#page=2

Given the size of the font, you don't want to go over 500-words because it'll probably go even smaller. 500-words is an essay though! I'd aim for no more than 200 if it were me.

I'm thinking a Force-user with an engineering background, possibly from a multilimbed species. A grizzled tender to recaltritant engines and ships that refuse to fly, traumatized by a First Order raid on the ship on which they had been travelling which caused its destruction with all hands, which they escaped only by being on a shore sortie to get parts for a malfunctioning rotovator designated for a farming world.

Joining the Resistance to keep their craft operational, the awakening of his powers was very much a surprise to him, and he'sd a slightly reluctant trainee.

Hey Neil, what language is Amos's back story in?

So how specific should I go? I mean, regardless some of this people probably don’t know right off the bat.

AJ. We're almost done with character creation and have most bases covered. I'll have a think and get back to you asap... an idea is occurring.

KenSeg. It's just lorem ipsum. If you read my post above I was trying to illustrate what 500-words looks like. Though if it were me I'd only bother with 200 or so. These are words you need to write, not me btw.

Art. You should be completely open, no secrets. That's the only way these things ever creep into the role-play.

Another important thing to note for you guys, is Talents.

Talents have fun names. There's a Talent called 'Speaks Binary', which gives you a blue dice when controlling droids.

That does not mean if you don't have Speaks Binary your character can't speak Binary (like Luke does with Artoo).

What it means is that if you do have Speaks Binary your character has a talent for it. Literally.

It's as simple as that. Talents are talents. As far as the fiction is concerned, you don't need Brace Talent to be able to brace for impact. In some ways it's alarming that any character might braced for impact so often that they've discovered they have a talent for it!

When I go to edit Preach, I notice that the link doesn't reveal anything.

So With Preach and Revenant we have two ‘callsigns’ so to speak.

You mean you can’t see your sheet Pande?

So Winta is about 32. And her nickname has to be 'Summer'

Pandemonium. Fixed the link for you. It won't allow you to edit the PDF though. They're flattened, generated by OggDude's SWCharGen.

http://www.legendsofthegalaxy.com/Oggdude/

I've donated about 10 bucks in the past to this fine fellow for all his fine work.

You shouldn't need to use it though. If you want to add back story, send it to me, post it here, and I'll add it for you, etc..

Daughter of a high echelon first order commander, talented, devoted, ruthless, buying every line of propaganda she had grown up with. Rebel Scum. Traitors. Disorder. Terrorists. Viewed as a shooting star, with the ability to almost disappear in plain sight and making some above her nervous with the combination of ambition and talent. It became quickly obvious that a regimented military career was not for her - not in her whirlwind personality. which is how she ended up in the FOSB, First order security bureau. On her first real mission she performed a real coup - only not the one she was supposed to. She found corruption and disloyalties alright. In the First Order leadership. Being the ‘loyal soldier’ she was, she took that discovery to a part of the leadership she thought pure … and for her trouble received a force pike through the face from aphasia herself and was left for dead. That force pike failed to kill her, due to a timely intervention by of all people a resistance medic, but it did shatter her beliefs. She found herself with a new home. The resistance would be the tool. She may not believe entirely, yet, in their philosophical underpinnings - but they were aimed where she wanted to be aimed. Who knows? Perhaps belief would come in time.

And that was how a hardened, scarred, often darkly sarcastic very young woman showed up as a volunteer. What was left in the First Order was no longer family. Both her and their actions had ensued that she was dead to them and they to her. She was Revenant.


*******

Revenant, Preach, Summer ...

Amos Whitman

The rugged marshall of a small colony on the outer rim world of Klandathu, Amos enjoyed a good life after a rough upbringing. His town of Halvin was a haven for those who wanted to be far away from the turmoil of the inner planets, raising animals for sale and enjoying the rugged beauty of the colony world. There was plenty of fights in the local bars and the typical troubles anytime sentients live together and Amos was kept busy keeping the peace and earning the respect of the people whom he was the lawman for with a keen eye for liars and a fair application of the laws of the colony.

Home life brought him peace from the dark upbringing and he found comfort in the arms of his wife Letha and the joyful laugh of his son David. Afternoons in the sun, rough housing with David and taking long walks along the river with Letha. They were trying for a second child, perhaps a daughter, that they would never have since one black night the skies were lit up with the fury of blasters as the First Order raided his colony to fill their ranks with recruits. Amos made his stand on the porch of their home, killing several of the raiders with his scatter blaster and vibro machete before he was brought down and left on the edge of death and his family ripped apart.

Found and nursed to health by survivors, his soul was filled with the need for revenge at the death of Letha and the kidnapping of his son. Amos left his once peaceful world to find a way to strike back at the people who destroyed his happiness and eventually made his way to the Resistance where he found a place where he could make them pay and keep his eyes open for any information about David or the others from Klandathu.

Huh. Sirra and Amos could probably have some interesting conversations.

I've updated all your character sheets.

Phoenix Prime. Sorted out your picture in Photoshop.

KenSeg. Tweaked your back story. Instead of Klandathu---and who doesn't love Starship Troopers---I've slotted Amos into the canon events during the Blockade of Dantooine. Dantooine is a praerie world, which makes it the perfect fit for Amos, I think.

Gypsy. Added your name. Gypsy's character is called Jix everyone.

AJ. Sent you a PM, hopefully you can oblige.

***

Here's what your team of Resistance fighters looks like:

2BB-2
BB-series astromech droid, upgraded for security operations. Can provide tech assistance and piloting assistance, but primarily for slicing computers.

Amos
Human Marshal. All-rounder, can provide assistance in talky scenes, or in short-range combat, or take the lead if need be. Uses a scatter blaster so don't step in front of him.

Jelly Bean
Twi'lek Starfighter Ace. Expert pilot but in training with Maz Kanata since Awakening. Supernatural mechanical ability. Also carrying the long-range communicator in her backpack. She carries a repeating blaster pistol and demolitions.

Jix
Verpine Medic. Skilled at first aid, trauma medicine and cybernetics maintenance. Also the support gunner for the team, carrying a full auto heavy blaster rifle.

Preach
Human Soresu Defender. Old man but knowledgable in the old ways and superb with a lightsaber, which uses a broken Jeddha crystal. One with the Force. Melee range only.

Sirra
Human Shadow. First Order deserter, expert at stealth and breaking and entering, and a crack shot with her hunting blaster. Can assist in slicing activities. Uses the Force to cloud people's minds.

Winta
Human Niman Disciple. Resistance lieutenant and educated diplomat. Probably the team leader, with Amos second in command. She is formidable in lightsaber combat though can often avoid using it through constructive dialogue. She uses the Force to move things, and calm people's emotions, and carries a standard officer's sidearm too.

Preach was what he did, so people just called him that. Once long ago he supposed he had a name. That was before he had joined the order. He had been dumped on the Guardians because his family had little. That was so long ago, he didn't even remember it.

Since he had gone through a full apprenticeship to become a Guardian. He wished to be a Jedi, but this was as close as he could get. Though he fervently believed in the force, he had no actual ability. Some might have taken that as a sign, but to him, it meant he had to become worthy. He did the best he could.

The First Order destroyed and took. They destroyed the temple he had sworn to protect, and they took anything of value from the poor around them. In their mind, it served the people right for believing the wrong things. To Preach it meant he lost his temple and watched helpless people die.

When he heard of the Resistance, he had to join them. When the Awakening happened, his hard work had been rewarded. Late in life, he used the discipline he had learned over the years to become better with the Jedi's chosen weapon.

Now he travels where the Resistance sends him, and he lives up to his name. Help people understand the Force.

Winta had been in the Resistance since before there had been a resistance, or indeed anything to resist.

She had ended up on Chancellor Mon Mothma’s staff. Initially it was a fairly junior administrative position, organising events, ensuring the right people were on distribution lists, making enquiries on the chancellor’s behalf. Later, when she had been on the staff a while and she had become trusted as both competent and loyal, she had become one of the chancellor’s discrete couriers, that ‘officially’ had transported diplomatic bags, and unofficially had allowed the chancellor to send and receive information or items such as data disks that were too sensitive to transmit.

It was on one of such trips that she first met Leia Organa. Leia was quite taken that Winta had been born in the rebel base on Hoth.

On many of the trips – particularly the ones where she traveled incognito – she would need to negotiate her way past officialdom – such as negotiating the right to land without giving away the true reason for her visit – or defuse situations that looked like they were headed for violence.

Once Mon Mothma became ill and stepped down as Chancellor, most of her staff – Winta included – were viewed as employed by the incumbent rather than by the post and were dismissed. This was a distinction Winta could hardly argue with since New Republic officials were prohibited from engaging in undercover work, and Winta had engaged in undercover work for the Chancellor much of the time she had been there.

On Winta contacting her, Leia invited her to join her staff, once more as a some time administrator, courier, and doer of the jobs that needed to be done by someone. There, Senator Leia Organa’s personal assistant, pilot and chief of staff, taught her how to fly, as a skill that it was thought she ought to have – just in case. Leia herself encouraged her in her work with the force.

Winta became a bit of a stand in: she would deliver the things or pass messages that Leia was too busy to deliver herself, make flights Leia's pilot couldn’t make, run things in others’ absence.

Incidentally for amusement the first three songs on my mental Sirra Soundtrack.

Call it mood music.

Ain’t no grave ...
Enemy.
Here I am.

OK, I've updated those character sheets.

Pande. Tweaked yours to tie up with the 35 year gap between the destruction of Jedha and the events in the new trilogy.

Gypsy. Similar to above. The Empire was long gone by the time your hive was destroyed.

We are just about there tbh. Just awaiting word from AJ, but I think we get get started in the meantime.

Sounds like a good group. Nice mix of races and skill sets.

Let’s see ...

Ranger, cavalier, cleric, fighter/mage(maybe?), rogue, bard?

Just for fun. Not sure what to call the droid.

Tubby..? (Two B)

Groan

Toby. Toob. Quite a few variations now I think of it.

So just to check, how long would Sirra have been resistanceized? I presume there was recuperation time from her injury of some sort, at the minimum

So this droid ... 2b or not 2b? I can’t tell”

Thanks Neil.

Art. One word, 'Bacta'. OK, it's a made-up word but it means healing from even the most severe trauma is blinking fast and reliable in Star Wars. Hours, maybe days. Weirdly, if we go by the films, giving birth is hideously dangerous!? Poor Padme.

Sirra has probably been active in the Resistance for just over a year, maybe two.

Was just wondering given the eye replacement and the no doubt face shattering if the repair took slightly longer. Ok. Just wanted to figure out.

We can assume Sirra wasn't amongst the Resistance forces fleeing the First Order in The Last Jedi. Which is fine, it would make more sense that should have been training with Maz Kanata during that time, or even the venerable old Jedi droid, Professor Huyang.

The same can be said for most of the player characters. Either with Maz Kanata or Huyang.

2BB-2 actually appeared in The Last Jedi so took part in those events. Btw, welcome to AJ who will be playing your vitally important BB-unit!

Phoenix Prime, are you there, matey?

Are languages actually a thing here? I don't see them on the sheets other than the speak binary talent.

Not really. If I want to make an issue of it, I will. I might just add a black dice for social or Perception checks, etc. Speak Binary Talent is only a talent for speaking Binary. You can still speak Binary if you want, you just don't have a talent for it. Which is rather like me playing chess. Can definitely play. Definitely don't have a talent for it.

Tweedle-beep.

((going to write the long version first- then will condense it down to bullet points for the char sheet- but I want people to meet her that way I see her.))


Jelly Bean


Her hair is Harlow gold
Her lips are sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold
She's got Bette Davis eyes

She'll turn the music on you
You won't have to think twice
She's pure as New York snow
She got Bette Davis eyes

And she'll tease you, she'll unease you
All the better just to please you
She's precocious, and she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush
She got Greta Garbo's standoff sighs,
she's got Bette Davis eyes

She'll let you take her home
It whets her appetite
She'll lay you on the throne
She got Bette Davis eyes

She'll take a tumble on you
Roll you like you were dice
Until you come out blue
She's got Bette Davis eyes

She'll expose you, when she snows you
Off your feet with the crumbs she throws you
She's ferocious and she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she's a spy,
she's got Bette Davis eyes

And she'll tease you, she'll unease you
All the better just to please you
She's precocious, and she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush
All the boys think she's a spy,
she's got Bette Davis eyes

She'll tease you
She'll unease you
Just to please you
She's got Bette Davis eyes

She'll expose you
When she snows you
She knows you.
She's got Bette Davis Eyes


Bette Davis Eyes - Kim Carnes


****



Part 1


"Can you say it again?"
"I have said it five times now..."
"But I still can't pronounce that..."
"That isn't MY problem."
The man lying on the bed, barely able to sit upright sighed, "I'm just going to call you Jelly Bean."
The Twi'lek woman shook her head as she raised a finger in the injured man's direction and cooly stated, "No, you will not."

But he already had said it and nicknames had a way of sticking when tensions were high, and stress and anxiety were unrelenting. These were the kinds of situations where bonds formed and the Twi'lek woman had no interest in making new friends, especially with this man. She should have followed that inner voice that told her that responding to a distress locator beacon would only bring trouble... maybe sooner, maybe later. And yet, here she was. Someone needed help and so she helped. But dragging him from the pod onto her beater little ship was another bad idea. He wasn't even trying to hide who he was, but then again this particular Twi'lek had no b grudge against his people.

The Hutts learned early on these guys were not interested in operating the same as the Imperials. And so, the Hutts kept distance and worked the edges. If the Hutts didn't do business with them, the neither did she. That was her life then. Now? Well, apparently she was doing business with them... at least one of them that is.

"I am going back to the cockpit to check on our course heading. When I come back I will help you get to the refresher... but if you call me that name again, well... then I will throw you out the airlock. Understand?"

"Yes Ma'am... Got it, Jelly Bean!"

She glared at the man, her lekku twitched violently, and she growled through clenched teeth. If she went to the extra effort to save him from starvation or hypoxia, then she wasn't going to dump him into space. And he knew it. She turned on heel and stalked away from him, her stomping feet could be heard all the way back to the pilot's chair.

****

"Kriff me," she hissed when the spanner slipped off the coupler and her hand banged into the bulkhead strut with a sharp 'thwang'. She leaned down and offered the tool/weapon to Maljahn, or Jahn as he liked to be called. Her hand was throbbing now and she wouldn't be able to exert enough pressure to open the access panel behind the conduit coupler. He would have to it from below.

"Here, take my fusion cutter and set it for low. You'll have to reach up and get the panel open first, then use the cutter to seal the coolant line to the plasma inductor... there... right there... look where I'm pointing... yes, that's it." That she offered him a weapon at all had to say something for the state of their relationship in close proximity to one another. It had nearly been two weeks since she found him adrift in open space, his escape nearly out of air and him severely dehydrated, and injured.

"Got it," he said as he took the tool from her and wedged himself into the bulkhead crevice to reach for the split line from below her. "Okay, charge the line and let's see if we can get this tub up and running again."

"Well get out of there first, you stupid nerf-herder. If it can't hold pressure again then it will melt your face and probably kill you before I can throw the cut-off again," she exclaimed.

"So you like my face?"

"What? No... If it kills you then I will miss all the fun tossing you out the airlock, okay?"

"You like my face," he teased. "It's okay Jelly Bean, you can tell me how you really..."

"I didn't say that..." She growled at him as she jumped down to the deck. "Whatever, just get out of the crevice first."

****

"It's been two weeks and I think you are just messing with me now," he said as he sat across from the red skinned Twi'leks. That race was from the planet Ryloth. That was the major planet in the sector he had been assigned to... 'patrol'. Her people actually called themselves Ryllian. He knew all this. He also knew that the name Twi'lek came from early explorers charting this sector at the fringe end of the Correllian Run. It was a mash of Galactic Basic and the Ryllian word for those prehensile tentacle-like appendages that dangled from their heads... lekku. Two lekku. And most importantly he knew she was what was known as a Lethan Twi'lek. Red Skinned. Extremely rare. Caused by a genetic mutation and not an actual racial sub-group of her people.

She was the first thing he saw after he woke up again. The heavy cruiser he and his team were using as a base of operations had been in combat. The foolish and arrogant Commander couldn't accept that he might get ambushed this far from their normal operating theaters. It did get ambushed, took heavy damage, and they forced to make an emergency jump. And then it all went wrong. The damage caused a cataclysmic failure that spun them out of hyperspace with shearing gravitational forces. The ship was ripped apart and was being scattered across an entire parsec of space.

She was an alien. Every instinct, honed, sharpened, whetted, and sharpened again told him to kill her right then and there. But he couldn't even get off the bed without her help. He was at her mercy. He was at the mercy of an inferior being. And now? Two weeks later? He had come to know that she wasn't inferior to anyone. If not for the fact that she was slinking through open space and avoiding normal routes, he would have died out there in the emptiness. She didn't have to help him either, but she did. She was nothing like what he expected. She was kind and compassionate, and patient with him. Even with the hardened facade she presented he could tell she was different than what he expected. Where was the corruption of soul and spirit?

He could tell that she was wary because he had said some unkind things those first two days before he realized he would never be able to stop her from spacing him as she threatened.

"I am not messing with you," she said with a laugh. She looked up coyly and smiled. She WAS messing with him. It was fun and it passed the time. Sure he probably thought of her like she was vermin, but he was doing a remarkable job at hiding it. Those first few days though, Boi'shai! He was insufferable. Fortunately he was also unconscious for most of the time.

"I have said your name every way possible and I am not a stupid nerfherder, no matter how many times you call me that... I was close when I said 'Jealousy'... wasn't I?"

She shrugged and that smile was thin and mischievous now. She liked looking at his eyes.

They were hours away from Ryloth now. She was happy that he had finally come to accept that she was not going to use the standard trade routes. Those co-ordinates paths were well established and part of every nav package. All the major routes were. But she tried to explain to him that his people weren't her biggest worry. The Hutts, their bounty hunters, and their slavers were. And they would be watching that route like farlus hawks. So, she was making many small jumps and manually plotting each jump to make a route to get them to her homeworld. She hadn't been there since she was six. She had no idea if her family was even still alive. They had lived in a rather remote village.

She thought back to when he was first able to speak clearly. He wanted, actually he demanded that she drop him at the closest world immediately... hmm, two weeks ago now. Not happening. She promised him that she would get him to Ryloth and then he was free to do whatever he wanted and go wherever he needed to go, on his own. But her ship was going to Ryloth and only Ryloth and she was going to make sure no one followed her and that they came across no one... at all.

He shook his head in mock frustration, but he was close to laughing out loud, "Then Jelly Bean it is... I'm done playing your silly game... that's your name now."

She shrugged, maybe it was her name after all. In two weeks she had allowed this man, Maljan Relnard, Colonel Maljahn Relnard, to give her a nickname. That intensity had lessened, the rage softened. He was different than she expected, and over the last two weeks of being confined in a small Starlight freighter that was barely space-worthy, she had come to find she actually liked the guy. Maybe when they reached Ryloth she would tell him her story. They were parting ways once they landed. He had hopes of getting back to his people and his war and she just wanted to go home and be left alone to enjoy her life as a free person. Telling him her story might confirm all those feelings he had when they first met, that she was a vile, corrupted... whatever. She didn't think so though. Not now. He was different... He deserved to know more than what she told him so far but she feared that these last two weeks getting to know one another would be undone if she were wrong about him. Besides, how do you tell someone you barely know that you are an escaped slave , an Hutt Cartel dancer and prostitute? But she wasn't that anymore... But being a Schutta was a reality she would probably have to face coming back to Ryloth, from her own kind. But Jahn was not Rylothian. Yeah, his people killed people like her out of principle. Stupid principle... But she wasn't that anymore, and... he wasn't the same man who woke up worried she might have infected him with her very presence. To think, she contemplated ignoring the distress call. She tried to convince herself that maybe getting rid of him would be the safest thing for her. She threatened him with spacing several times, until she knew that he knew she wasn’t serious. Over two weeks together now.

Well, didn't she owe that much to herself to know if he had truly grown, changed? Probably, but that would have to wait until they landed now.

I like her. Whether Sirra will, who knows? Also, I know that our erstwhile medic and Sirra are acquainted to a degree - anyone else?

Neil said that Winta and Amos might know each other

I’m thinking that if out erstwhile GM doesn’t disagree that Sirra might understand binary. Infiltration along with a droid unit for slicing was probably in her past and understanding what the droid said would useful to that.

Not unreasonable. Winta gets around.

Perhaps she came across him in a bar somewhere where he was being a bit obvious about hating the first order and wanting to join the Resistance? She calmed him down and got him talking and then when she was comfortable he wasn't an agent provocateur offered him a lift to the Resistance?

Angr. Winta might have been on Dantooine before the blockade, on a recruiting drive. Partly why the First Order blockaded the planet, to prevent the Resistance from gaining new recruits. Amos probably blew her off at first, but then the First Order came to his town and things changed.

Art. What languages you speak is your call really.

If you think about it, in the Star Wars films a character's only ever shown as not speaking a language for comedic effect. From a story point of view, there has to be some point in a character not speaking a language because it's such a storytelling obstacle.

If I want a tense stand-off between you and some local warlords, I might say they can barely understand you, frex, because poor communication can really help ratchet up tension in a tense scene.

I can’t think of any particular reason for Sirra to have met preach, ‘Tubby’, Amos, Jelly Bean or Winta, although by no means am I opposed to something.

That works for me.

Well, what's left of the Resistance after Crait isn't that big and all you Force-users have been training with Leia, Maz and Huyang, so you might not be bosom-buddies but you'd definitely know one another to talk to. You would know roughly each other's background and skillset too.

It's plausible 2BB-2 and Sirra might have been off on mission before.

You probably guess I was holding off on starting the game today.

It was too auspicious not to. So...

May the 4th be with you!